Playing House
by x Ruby Dust x
Summary: The ducklings are back.Nicole's marriage to Chase is inexplicably falling apart.Cameron finds herself attracked to someone she shouldn't be.and House is concerned over a relationship between Cuddy and Wilson.DRAMA QUEENS WILL LOVE! REVIEW! Warn:sex.lang.


Playing House

A "House, M.D." fanfiction

Chapter one

Nicole lay awake, her tired body sagging with the weight of the day. Her entire body was tingling with a disgust that she just couldn't place. Well, that was a lie. She could place her disgust, and he was holding her in his arms. Her husband. Chase.

_What went wrong_, she thought as she tried to wiggle from his unconscious grasp. The wedding had been magical. The honeymoon had been seven different kinds of amazing. But that had all changed, somehow, the day she had started seriously talking about going back to med school. Something between them had taken a turn for the worse and had slowly been creeping downwards. It had gotten to the point where he would whisper, "I love you," before going to sleep and it would keep her up all night. Wide awake.

Finally, he let her go and she jumped from the bed, sporting only a cotton t-shirt. She looked over at Chase, wondering what was going on in his head. She still loved him. She knew that one thing for certain. She still got goose bumps each time he would smile at her. And that accent of his did things to her that were too hot to even discuss in the confides of her own mind. But his touch repulsed her? It just didn't make sense.

Just thinking about it made her head hurt, so she grabbed her jacket and bolted out the door. At this point, her motto was: when all else fails, run away. It hadn't failed her yet, and she was sticking to her guns. The only problem was that her hands were shaking so bad that she could hardly fit her car key into the lock. A good four tries later, Nicole finally wrenched open the door and sped off down the street.

She wasn't sure why she kept coming back to this place. But, then again, she wasn't sure about anything anymore. So, without another thought, she clambered up the stoop, entered the main building, and turned to knock on an apartment door.

- - - - - - -

His hands glided across the ivory of the piano, his ears twitching with delight as he listened to the sound it produced. For these moments, he lived in his own pain free world, away from the sick and suffering and away from himself. Until he heard the knock on the door.

His hands came crashing down on the keys as House stood and limped over to the peephole. He didn't need to look to know it was her, but he did anyway. With a quick slide of his hand over the chain lock, the door was ajar and she was standing before him. In nothing but a flimsy t-shirt. His mouth wanted to curve into a smile when he saw her, but her expression changed that.

He could clearly see that she was on the verge of tears, and the bags under her eyes told him that she had had, just like all the other times, a sleepless night.

House stepped aside to let Nicole brush past him and place herself on his couch. She moved to take her coat off, but then hugged it tighter around herself when she noticed her lack of clothing. He limped to the closet, pulled out a blanket, and draped it around her shoulders. Then, he took her coat and hung it on a chair next to the door.

Sitting down at the piano once again, he took a small orange cylinder out of his pocket and popped a pill into his mouth. Then, he continued with the music.

Nicole got up from the couch, her fingers clinging tightly to the edges of the blanket, and sat down next to him. She watched his fingers glide across the keys and admired the product as much as House did.

"So...how about this weather?" He sighed, knowing that she wanted to talk, but not knowing how to start the conversation.

"You want to talk about the weather? I come to your home in the middle of the night, and you want to talk about the weather?" She seemed irritated, but he understood that it was just because she was tired. "Sorry...it's just..."

He stopped playing once again and turned to her, "Go ahead."

"I don't know. Everything between me and Chase seems so perfect on the outside, but... I'm married to him and I'm still waiting for his ghosts to come jumping out of the closet." Her hands covered her face, tears starting to flow freely from her dreary eyes. "We've had this conversation so many times," she wept.

His fingers slid off the keys delicately this time. "And we'll have it one more time."

The tears stopped with his soft words. "What?"

House realized that he let his hardened exterior slip, and quickly rushed to put his defenses back up. Covering, he popped another pill into his mouth. "You heard me."

Nicole let that reply slip, finding something in his face captivating. She was completely unable to look away, although she could tell the whole situation was becoming extremely uncomfortable and unprofessional. "Do those make you numb?"

"Close to it."

Her eyes finally moved to her lap, where she fiddled with her hands. "All I want is to be numb," she explained, letting the blanket fall from her shoulders, "Can I have one?"

He studied her for a moment. Then, without another thought, flipped off the childproof cap and rolled a pill into his hand. He stared at the pill before holding it out to her. "The first one is free. After that... get your own."


End file.
